I made a donut ring to take the place of the thin aluminum one that covers the space between the outer and inner wall. I used the top of a #10 can. I cut a hole in the middle of it and it fits nice. I filled the stove with 4" lengths of dry maple. Almost boiled 1 gallon with the load. . Stove is drafting nicely.

Now that I have observed the stove in action I'll be able to make another one to incorporate the noted areas of needed improvement.

Not many days left to this month to get your entries ready.

Some photos of how the stove looks loaded with fuel and one showing the coarse fiberglass cloth that I'll use to wrap the final improved stove.

You are way ahead of me Zelph. I finally found some time the last couple days, between yard work, to start my rocket stove project. I just have some final touches to put on it and it will be ready to fire up Here are a few pics of the build so far.....

"Many of lifes failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".....Thomas Edison

"1.) Insulate, particularly the combustion chamber, with low mass, heat resistant materials in order to keep the fire as hot as possible and not to heat the higher mass of the stove body."

But for a backpacking lightweight weight rocket stove (e.g. comparable to the weight of a bushbuddy/caldera cone etc), the whole stove has by definition a low mass, thus a plain air gap would seem sufficient (supported by zelph's experiments): For even simpler construction, then, a single wall lightweight backpacking rocket stove with separate windshield around combustion chamber (and pot) would be easier to construct and have acceptable performance?

I finally found some time the last couple days, between yard work, to start my rocket stove project

I have not started my yard work yet But!!! today I will start. Glad you were able to take a break from it and play with stove stuff. Ahhhh yes!!! time to fire up that rocket. Nice choice in materials.

For even simpler construction, then, a single wall lightweight backpacking rocket stove with separate windshield around combustion chamber (and pot) would be easier to construct and have acceptable performance?

Yes, single wall construction works well for small size stove the we are familiar with. The big rocket stoves need to be insulated to keep the heat out of the living space. Third world countries are usually in the HOT southern parts of the world.

Did some more testing with the rocket stove today. Here are a couple pics but I am wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to get vids from an iphone to your computer or youtube or photobucket??? Drop me a message, thanks!

nothing but ashes

"Many of lifes failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".....Thomas Edison

Yes, I like the bail.....I forgot to include that in my post. "House" is on tv and it distracts me Bail is a nice addition. Makes for easy emptying of the stove. Keeps hand cleaner. Do you think a side handle woold bee better?

I think there are iPhone apps for editing and processing iPhone video. So transfer the video to your computer at home with the iPhone power-to-USB cable. Then, editing software (or not) and upload to Photobucket.